Friday 12 August 2022

Saint Catherine of Siena, a summer 2022 filming day from Mary's Dowry Productions



Yesterday (August 11th), Mary's Dowry Productions spent several hours filming at Cissbury Ring in West Sussex. We used the sun scorched fields and hazy heat to capture our silent portrayal of one of the great Saints of the Universal Church, Saint Catherine of Siena. As always we like to use our local surroundings. The South Downs at this time of year work well for European settings. We decided to work on our film about Saint Catherine of Siena and capture our own imagery for our film.




This film will be told from Saint Catherine's point of view. A popular and quotable Saint, her life is of interest and inspiration. She remained a single laywoman all her life and in her later years joined the Dominicans as third order member. She is a mystic and a Doctor of the Church. She is renowned for her great love of the Papacy and of the figure of the Pope and had a special calling for the Church in her time.


Mystically, Saint Catherine is remembered for her many spiritual letters, her book The Dialogue, as well as bearing the stigmata and the Crown of Thorns. She was the only one who could see this, it was invisible to everyone else. She lived in the 14th Century and was of special importance to the Papacy. She carried out many missions entrusted to her by the pope, which was quite rare for a woman in the Middle Ages.


During her life, Saint Catherine sent numerous letters to princes and cardinals to promote obedience to the Pope, at that time, Pope Urban VI, and to defend what she calls the "vessel of the Church". After spending much of the middle of her life in silence and solitude, Saint Catherine was called by Christ to be among people. She travelled with her followers throughout northern and central Italy advocating reform of the clergy and advising people that repentance and renewal could be done through "the total love for God".




During our filming at Cissbury Ring, we had to walk down the steep hill from the Iron Age hillfort and into a wooded area. It was here that we discovered an area of trees and branches shaped like a Crown of Thorns. We used this for some imagery of Saint Catherine of Siena bearing her stigmata and Crown of Thorns.



Our film about Saint Catherine of Siena will be available soon from Mary's Dowry productions. Celebrate the lives and missions of the English Martyrs, Saints and Blesseds with the films of Mary's Dowry Productions - more here: Mary's Dowry Productions


“If you are what you should be, you will set the world ablaze.” - Saint Catherine of Siena